A US woman who shot and killed her husband and two adult children before taking her own life is thought to have committed the shocking crime as a result of being ostracised from the religion she was raised in.

A federal judge sentenced a former Arkansas judge Wednesday to five years in prison — a stiffer punishment than prosecutors recommended — after he admitted giving young male defendants lighter sentences in return for personal benefits that included sexual favours.

Every time I tell a mate I’m doing a story on cryptocurrency, they invariably ask me the same two questions: should they invest their own hard-earned money, and which cryptocurrency will get them a Lamborghini/yacht/island quickest?

In a 60 Minutes online exclusive, reporter Liz Hayes quizzed Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on his relationship with the unpredictable Twitter aficionado and US president Donald Trump ahead of their meeting at the White House Friday.

Tas to overhaul child protection service

Tasmania's child protection service will be overhauled following serious failures in the system.

Human Services Minister Jacquie Petrusma, who is fending off opposition calls for her sacking, has come under fire over her knowledge of 151 unanswered reports of children and babies at risk in the state's north-west.

The Health and Human Services Department did not tell her about the reports for three weeks.

The government will adopt all recommendations of a departmental report into failings of the north-west child protection services.

A new expert-led body will be created, and will report within six months on a "bottom up" redesign of the service across the state.

"Tasmania has a long history of reviews and reports into the child protection system, particularly under the previous Labor and Labor-Green governments, but yet the state did not achieve the level of systemic, structural reform needed," Ms Petrusma said in a statement on Thursday.

The opposition said the report gave no update on outcomes for the 151 children, whose notifications were not acted on.

"It also fails to address the massive breakdown of communication that saw the minister responsible for child protection kept in the dark for three weeks," Labor human services spokeswoman Rebecca White said.

Labor said resourcing, and not staff, was behind problems in the north-west office.